HAT Talk: Humanism and Rationality Across Cultures

Presenter: John Varghese

Please join the Zoom Meeting here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/971381033

Different cultures across the globe (and across time!) cultivate reason, compassion and critical thought in distinct yet universal ways. This 'lived' contrast (as a person of Indian origin living in Canada for the past 25 years) has prompted me to suggest this topic. I would myself have loved to hear someone expound on this topic, but since I haven't heard anything, I volunteer! This would be a call to broaden our view of humanism to include voices and histories that have operated outside of the dominant Western frame - beyond Greece's rationalism or Europe's Renaissance.

But rather than simply pitting East and West, I'd like to focus on how human beings everywhere have sought to give a 'working' voice to reason and compassion. As with any social attribute, this voice has different origins and trajectories across the globe with their own paths, directions, and current states. There are also distortions of imperialism, colonization and other geopolitical economic power games that have played out over time to bring us to where we are globally. And when we succumb to translation bias of history writers, it is incumbent upon us students of truth to de-centre the idea of enlightenment as solely a product of the '"west" and see what is happening to humanism globally. And to do this while avoiding the trap of romanticizing the "east"!

Please join the Zoom Meeting here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/971381033